Over the last 2 years I have been collecting the vintage Kinkeshi line. My last trip to Japan really helped me narrow down and complete my collection. Collecting the vintage line is way different than collecting the Mattel Muscle line due to the 5 color variations( Flesh, Blue, Green, Red & Yellow) and the other factor is the price!

I would like for all of them to be Flesh but due to the price range of some of the later parts I am more than happy with a complete collection in any which color.

I almost have a full run of Flesh in Part 1 to Part 25.

I started organizing my vintage Kinnikuman kinkeshi from Japan. My ultimate goal once I owned the reissue set was to own the entire vintage collection.

Once I have them all sorted and counted I will include a full picture of all of them together. I will use this topic thread to present my collection.

I will showcase each part individually. Along with that I also by chance started to acquire the other colors; the vintage Kinkeshi "master set" is probably as hard if not harder to complete than the Mattel MUSCLE line (totalling 2,090 figures!). So I will post some pics of those too

Does anyone here in the LRG community have all 30 Parts or collect vintage Kinkeshi?

This is the first part and probably the easiest one to collect and find online (either ebay or yahoojapan). Very often the figures in the first part come in lots and feature the now classic sculpts we all know and love! If you are starting your collection or just want to start somewhere I would go for Part 1 (even if you don't collect the other parts). I also own the Gashapon backing board (Daishi) for Part 1:

Part 5 had 19 sculpts; three of my favorites: Obviously the now "iconic" Sunshine sculpt (#74). But I really like #70 and #67 (they never had a female Muscle sculpt in the mattel line). I also have the Part 5 Daishi (Backing board) as well:

Part 6 only had 7 sculpts; funny how some parts had 20 figures in the collection and other parts below 10. All recognizable sculpts from the Mattel Muscle line. I also own the Daishi for Part #6 and it's interesting to see the color patterns they use for the respective characters.

Part 7 went back to having more sculpts (19); a lot of fun sculpts here and familiar ones to Muscle fans from the Mattel line. Parallel to collecting the vintage Kinkeshi I also collect the "Daishi" gashapon backing boards. Having all the kinkeshi and the backing boards would give me a truly complete set.

Part 8 up to that point had the most sculpts (23 total). By now they had 130 figures in the collection and with Part 8 they introduced the now beloved "Claw #118" sculpt! My two favorite sculpts from this part is #120 for some reason & #128 (Kinnikuman's Mom). I also own the Daishi for Part 8:

Part 9 had 12 sculpts total and had some pretty kick ass figures like #135 that never made it to the Mattel line. I own the Part 9 Daishi and an alternate backing board for Part #9 (used in some gashapon machines at that time). It had images from the anime and not of the Kinkeshi; alternate backing boards are sometimes used during this period for certain parts and promotions (especially contests).

For Part 12 they decided to try something different and they went with a tag team theme (besides 6 single/individual sculpts). Of course if you count each sculpt you actually have 26 original figures! In terms of displaying them; they are a pain in the butt!...but look cool together. Some of these have been reissued quite a bit so its difficult when buying them online from the listing pictures to know if they are vintage 1984 figures. However it's noticable once you see them in person and after a while once you collect kinkeshi: "you will just know based on smell, texture and color" if they are reissue or not besides the tell tale "CHINA" on the back Often you will get these split in lots (for example #187; if I had a dollar for each time I had both come up in lots!). Finding them online as a tag set when your missing them from your collection can get pricey when you calculate shipping etc. I also own the Part 12 Daishi/backing board!

Collecting the first 13 parts is easy! I have 5 sets already if I include the four 205 Perfect Collection sets I own. I am not even counting the 28 Boxed sets which have a lot of the first sculpts from the 13 parts. After Part 13 it gets interesting and frustrating at the same time when it comes to collecting. Part 13 had 14 sculpts total and also the iconic #189 Sunshine sculpt and two interesting sculpts in #194 & #195. Up to that point that was the entire collection (totalling 195 figures or 205 figures if you counted the tag team sculpts as individual figures). So when they released the 205 Perfect Collection it was at that point the definitive collection...until Part 14 (hahaha). If you start collecting the vintage kinkeshi line I suggest you shoot for the first 13 parts and then decide if you want to continue since those parts are the easiest to collect. I have the Daishi Backing board for Part 13 as well (a recent acquisition).

Part 14 had 13 sculpts total and again feautured another iconic sculpt: #196 and one of my favorites sculpt #203. Familiar Mattel sculpts in this set and I often wondered what went into deciding what sculpts would be used by Mattel or not for the Muscle line. I have the Daishi Backing board for Part 14 as well and it's one of my favorites! Here they have an awesome diorama theme! These sculpts come up in lots as well so they are not super rare or anything but by this point you are knee deep into 208 figures total!

Part 15 had 15 sculpts total (or 20 figures total since they have some tag team sets). This part had an interesting tag team sculpt #210 which I later found out when looking through the old UofM articles was at first believed to have been a new/rare Mattel sculpt in the infancy of the old-school Muscle collecting days. Part 15 also had the #222 & #223 sculpts which became confirmed Mattel Super Rare non poster figures.

. My favorite sculpts are #212 (something about the idea of Terry Man in a strap/chain match makes me giggle) & #214 (sword fight!!!) I have the Daishi Backing board for Part 15 too but it's not as exciting as the previous Part 14 Daishi.

Part 16 had 16 sculpts total (by this point the line had 239 figures total). #226 #227 & #228 are kick ass sculpts!

I own a complete Part 16 but this was the first time I had a mixed complete set and the #16 Daishi (probably my favorite backing board besides backing board #21 which I don't own).

I almost gave up here! Once I got to Part 16 I became frustrated with collecting the vintage Kinkeshi line because of prices and difficulty of finding the respective keshi in flesh individually. By this point I wanted my collection to be all flesh (later on I would change my mind lol).

I wanted to collect them chronologically per part but that was just insane. I decided to take a break from collecting the vintage kinkeshi line and started working on the Kinnikuman Dekas (also frustrating once you get to those last few figures) and then I returned to the Muscle Mattel line.

In between I would get Kinkeshi in Deka lots and before I knew it I ended up completing later Parts (#17 #18 etc).

When I realized that I thought I should continue and try completing the entire set (originally I wanted to see how far I could get but really wanted a full collection).

I prefer the tag team sculpts being cast in the same mold instead of two separate figures (only because often when loose it takes forever to find the missing partner or they are more difficult to acquire one sculpt because it's actually two figures etc).

Part 17 had 12 sculpts total (by this point the line had 251 figures total). The #245 Ashuraman in a sling sculpt I always found hilarious (the idea of a kid playing with a battle torn character) but even more interesting is #241 B (what a weird/interesting choice). I also own the Daishi for this but I felt it was too repetive and not as inventive as #16 for example; we would see a similar Daishi in #18.

Part 18 had 10 sculpts total (by this point the line had 261 figures total). I wished the Mattel line had released #252 because its one awesome looking sculpt visually. Ditto on owning the Daishi for Part 18 but like Part 17, I felt it was too similar. Daishi wise BANDAI they would redeem themselves with Part 19.

Part 19 came with a vengance! (20 sculpts total) and some interesting choices for the sculpts as well. I felt that #262 to #267 were pretty similar/repetitive. The #270 "Varsity Blues" Buffalo Man kinda made up for it. The Part 19 Daishi is great, I have it framed on my wall too.

It's been a bit since I posted another part so here is Part 20! Part 20 had 10 sculpts total. Sculpts #290 & #291 are both interesting because they are not featured in the Mattel MUSCLE line (unlike the other 8 for example). I imagine that at this point a collector of the vintage Kinkeshi line back in the 1980's probabaly thought: "Almost 300 to collect!!!!"

Part 21 had 15 sculpts total. This part had the iconic Satan Cross sculpt (#292), Spinning Head Ashuraman (#305) and the Sunshine sculpt with the removable chest piece (#306).

Also many sculpts we wound up seeing in the Mattel Muscle releases are found here. By this point the collection had 306 figures total and this part is often difficult to complete because of the 3 sculpts mentioned )especially the Satan Cross because of the hind legs are often missing) but if you owned the Part Ten 28 Box set you could accumulate many of the Part 21 sculpts.

Some of the sculpts were later resculpted in 2008 so be aware when shopping online; the Satan Cross or Sunshine with removable chest piece for example; a good tell tale of course is the CHINA mark on the back and the sculpts are slightly smaller than the vintage KInkeshi from the 1980's.

I have a complete Part 21 set (two sculpts in Blue) along with the Daishi (my absolute favorite Daishi!) that came from a Gashapon machine I purchased.

This part had 10 sculpts total and was released in 1985 or 1986 (not 100% sure) and this set has an awesome sculpt in Bike Man's literal bike Keshi (#308) but most people find the Ramenman (#313), Satan Cross (#310) & Warsman with claws (#314) sculpts interesting based on the Mattel MUSCLE history.